On or Off Cuba Ping.
Posted on 12/03/2004 7:25:08 PM PST by freedom44
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will be committed during his second term to the ``liberation of Cuba'' by extending moral and political support to the Cuban people, a top State Department official said Friday.
Roger Noriega, who heads the department's Latin American bureau, also said that once Fidel Castro is no longer in power, the United States is ready to support broad economic and political reform in Cuba ``to ensure that vestiges of the regime don't hold on.''
Noriega noted that Washington has a blueprint for providing social, economic and other types of assistance to Cuba in the post-Castro era.
The plan is spelled out in a report released last May and overseen by Secretary of State Colin Powell. The assistance is conditioned on whether Cuba is on a democratic path and whether such assistance is requested.
Noriega said that Castro's fragility at age 78 was underscored recently when he fractured a knee and an arm during a fall at a public event.
With Castro's tumble, Noriega said, the Cuban people had to start thinking about their leader's mortality as well as their own lives.
``The transition essentially is under way today,'' Noriega told a gathering of more than 200 people at an event sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In recent days, Castro ordered the release of some prisoners who were facing long sentences following their convictions last year of collaborating with the United States in anti-regime activities.
The Bush administration denied the allegation and said the detentions of 75 activists in March 2003 exposed the repressive nature of the regime.
The prisoner releases appeared to have been the result of Spanish mediation and could lead to a thaw in Cuban relations with the Europe.
Noriega said the Europeans should be engaging with the Cuban people rather than the Castro regime.
He added that it was ``cynical and evil'' for Castro to detain people and then release them in exchange for diplomatic favors.
As for the Europeans, he said, ``making concessions to a regime like that is really a wrongheaded policy.''
On or Off Cuba Ping.
Oh wow - to have the hero of the Hollywood left toppled will certainly cause many to have panic attacks. But Cuba has such great healthcare! Oh wait - they quarantine AIDS patients - shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Too bad Kennedy did not complete the job of making Castro vanish -- should have happened a long time ago.
To hear the Hollywood elite whine would be reason enough to do this.
This isn't a surprise, though. A few days before the election at a rally in Florida, the Prez announced he'd take a pro-active role toward Cuba. Huge cheers met the announcement Dubya is keeping his word. Fidel's days are numbered.
No, I see that was Otto Reich.
Oh..., I see!
I guess we've been doing something completely different these last 45 years.
Seems like the Cuban people need a bit more than "moral and political support" to overthrow a dictator who's been in power under the rule of force for the past 45 years.
Say...like, maybe... a squadron of APACHES landing in Habana, Santa Clara, Cienfuegos, Matanzas, and for good measure...Varadero (to "liberate" those Canadian and European touristas funding the warden of that island jail).
That's right! I had forgotten that Spain is now under a socialist government too, just like Cuba.
No wonder Castro listened to them.
More like commie brotherhood.
Go Dubya!
"To hear the Hollywood elite whine would be reason enough to do this. "
Really. I can't think of a step which would throw the Bush-haters into a greater frenzy than to extend the blessings of liberty to the people of Cuba.
Hear, Hear....yes!
This is nothing new, Spain has never gotten over the fact that it lost Cuba over a hundred years ago and has for many years now quietly and sometimes not so quietly aided Castro. In exchange have been gained favor, they have little by little acquired a lot of prime ocean front property where they have built hotels and who knows what else they have their hands on.
They know that if Fidel falls, they will be kicked out by the former owners of the prime ocean front property when they return home and want to make sure Fidel stays in power!
and.....let's not forget that JFK during the October crisis, acceded to Nikita's demands that the U.s. Government stop anyone in the US, including Cubans from launching any type of attack or invasion against Cuba ever.
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